An action research on developing english speaking skills through asynchronous online learning

The fact that English has become a lingua franca together with globalization has necessitated teaching English intensively at university preparatory schools. However, it is quite a tough process to help students acquire English language skills in merely one academic year. Specifically, one of the most outstanding problems in teaching speaking skills, which are productive skills, is English speaking anxiety. In this context, the purpose of this research is to develop an action plan to alleviate foreign language speaking anxiety, which is a challenging issue for prep (Preparatory Class) students, and to improve speaking performance. Therefore, the researcher sought an answer to the question "What contributions would asynchronous online English speaking group make to the students and related curriculum?" This action research was carried out by the teacher-researcher of 19 prospective Chemical Engineering students at CEFR A1 level at Ege University School of Foreign Languages. The research took place over a 12-week period in the fall term of 2015-2016 academic year. Asynchronous online English speaking activities were done using WhatsApp application. The participants created WhatsApp groups of 4-5 people with the peers they chose; the researcher sent them either written or voice messages with English speaking tasks (picture description, comparison and making a decision, discussion) almost always supported by images and videos; and they performed these tasks and sent their voice messages to their groups. The participants evaluated the activities and sent their written evaluations to the researcher directly on WhatsApp. The researcher gave them written feedback on their English speaking performance on WhatsApp, as well. Data were gathered through English Speaking Anxiety Scale (ESAS) by Woodrow (2006), semi-structured interviews, participants' speaking exam grades and teacher-researcher's reflective journal. The Turkish version of ESAS was administered as pretest (in week 1) and posttest (in week 11); six students were interviewed (in week 11, after the posttest); the speaking exam was administered (in week 12); the teacher-researcher kept a reflective journal (throughout the research). The analysis of quantitative data shows that Wilcoxon signed-rank test elicited a statistically significant change in English speaking anxiety of students (z= -2.660, p= .008, r= -.84); that is, their anxiety level decreased. Also, the students' speaking exam grade average was found 12.68 out of 15 (with 84.56% success rate). Qualitative data matched up with quantitative data. As for the content analysis of qualitative data, these results were obtained: the students' speaking anxiety decreased, their speaking performance increased, asynchronous learning provided flexibility, interaction among stakeholders was of importance in the learning process, motivation played a determining role in participating in the activities, fostering student-centered learning was vital, and feedback from the researcher was indispensible to monitor the development of speaking skills. These results indicate that the action plan worked well to alleviate students' English speaking anxiety and to enhance their speaking performance. Therefore, it is thought to be a good idea to integrate asynchronous online speaking activities into the related curriculum. It is hoped that results of this research will guide teachers and provide insight into students' foreign language speaking anxiety, and give alternative ideas to improve language skills by getting the most out of technology. Keywords: Preparatory class, foreign language speaking anxiety, English speaking skills, asynchronous learning, mobile assisted language learning